Its high time agricultural income is brought into the income tax net. Many politicians under the guise of being “agriculturists /farmers” have been evading income tax for decades. No finance minister has ever dared to tax agricultural income. In fact today one can see many rich farmers leading a lavish style (most of them political leaders and so on) and yet not paying the income tax as they say they earn “agricultural income”. Many political leaders declare their professions as “agriculture” and show their income too to the tune of lakhs and crores, from “agricultural profession”. And, yet they have neither come under the income tax slab nor have they helped the poor and suffering farmers of their own constituencies.
Last but not the least, the finance minister should catch hold of all those utter and core corrupt officials, bureaucrats, ministers too and attach all their wealth and assets. I am not talking about the huge money stashed away in Swiss banks. We have been hearing several cases of ministers, bureaucrats and officials being involved in large scale scams and corrupt deals. They have amassed wealth and properties to the tune of hundreds of crores. Some ex-ministers have been found to be owning as many properties, farms, flats, land and so on. However, no action has been taken against them so far. At least over the last two years, many scandals and scam have been exposed and in which many political leaders, ministers, bureaucrats and others have been found to be closely involved in them.
More importantly, as per the disclosure made by the finance minister that the number of bank loan defaulters has risen to an alarming extent, the government must take stern actions against them-come what may. It’s a known case that on one hand some industrialists happily default loan repayments etc. and on the other hand lead a lavish style by owning luxury yachts, limousines and so on. These defaulters must not be spared at all.
The government must grab and attach all the properties of such corrupt people and defaulters and recover all the money due from them.
The finance minister must recover all those unaccounted wealth, assets and cash from the most corrupt people, he can certainly get huge revenue to wipe off the deficit in the budget. He need not even think of imposing and taxing the common man anymore. Maybe he can even do away with the Income tax on the salaried class. Will the prime minister and finance minister take some bold measures–it’s now or never? And establish that “Acchhe Din” is indeed here for the common man and honest tax payers to lead a decent lifestyle?
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
